Chapter 8: Team Effectiveness and Diversity

Teams can generate higher productivity and more rapid innovation and creativity. Myths of teamwork: Teams are always the answer The key to team performance is cohesion The team leader is the primary determinant of team performance The best individual performers will create the highest performing tream

Teams do not represent a solution for all situations: 1. Teams are better when no individual expert exists 2. Teams are often superior in stimulating innovation and creativity 3. Teams can help create a context where people feel connected and valued Team a group of two or more people who have a high degree of interaction and interdependence and are mutually accountable for achieving common objectives

3 dimensions of high performance team scorecard: 1. Production output 2. Member satisfaction 3. Capacity for continued cooperation 5 disciplines essential to high performance: 1. Small size a. On average, people work harder, engage in a wider variety of tasks, assume more responsibility for the teams performance, and feel more involved with the team 2. Capable and complementary members a. General cognitive ability and personality characteristics of agreeableness associated with higher ratings 3. Shared purpose and performance objectives a. Outcome based goals describes the specific results by which success will be determined b. Activity based goals describes solely the activities by which success will be determined 4. Productive norms and working approach 5. Mutual accountability Research suggests that you really have to get high scores on all of the disciplines, and do so consistently, if you want to deliver team performance.

4 stages of team development: 1. Forming a. Initial entry of members into a group b. Determining the real task of the group c. Defining group roles 2. Storming a. Period of high emotion and tension among the members b. Group experiences some changes 3. Norming a. Group begins to come together as a coordinated unit b. Try to regulate behavior toward a harmonious balance 4. Performing a. Emergence of a mature, organized, and well functioning team Norms the informal rules and expectations that groups establish to regulate the behavior of their members Cooperative team rewards situation in which a team is rewarded as a group for its successful performance, and each member receives exactly the same reward Competitive team rewards situation in which a team is rewarded based upon each individuals contribution and each members reward varies according to his individual performance Effects on people in team are exceptionally powerful: Risky shift = in a group, people are more likely to make riskier decisions, as the shared risk reduces personal risk Innocent bystander = diffusion of responsibility whereby members feel their personal responsibility is limited because others will step up and act Choking = slang term used to describe the phenomenon that the presence of others often hinders individual performance Escalation of commitment

Social loafing a situation in which people exert less effort when working in groups than when working alone Ringelmann effect describes the situation in which some people do not work as hard in groups as they do individually Identifiability a strategy for reducing social loafing by making member contribution to a task explicit Social conformity involves social pressures to conform to the perceived wishes of a group Groupthink a pattern of faulty decision making that occurs in groups where members seek agreement at the expense of decision quality

Abilene paradox a paradox through which a particular situation forces a group of people to act in a way that is counter to their actual preferences, it is a phenomenon that occurs when groups continue with misguided activities which no group member desires because no member is willing to raise objections None of them really wanted to go to Abilene they were just going alone because they thought others were eager to go

Surface level diversity differences among people reflected in easily seen physical characteristics (age, race, national origin/ethnicity Deep level diversity differences among people reflected in underlying attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, skills, and values Most difficult challenges for managers: Managing those from different cultures Managing those of considerable age differences Communicating with opposite sex

5 dimensions on which people from national cultures tend to differ: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Power distance Individualism vs. collectivism Achievement vs. nurturing orientation Uncertainty avoidance Long term vs. short term orientation

4 categories of generations: Traditionalists Boomers Generation x Millenials

The more difficult it is to get into a group, the more cohesive the group typically becomes Social contracting a strategy for trying to actively reduce loafing by addressing the issue before it happens, before a goal gets set, a task assigned, or work divided, the team might discuss and agree upon the consequences for members who do not pull their own weight Convergent thinking group problem solving which is oriented toward deriving the single best answer to a clearly defined question Divergent thinking involves producing multiple or alternative answers from available information, it requires making unexpected combinations, recognizing links among remotely associated issues, and transforming information into unexpected forms